This document contains advice on how to use remotely sensed and ground based data in
combination to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals associated with REDD+
activities, consistent with Decisions of the COP and guidance from IPCC.

Summary Report and Presentations from an international dialogue on Satellite data and
monitoring systems for REDD+

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ) organized a professional workshop on satellite data and methods for
deforestation and forest degradation monitoring on 5 October 2012 in Bonn, Germany. This
event was preceded by a technical side event on 4 October 2012 organized by DLR. Experts from
science, satellite data and service providers such as RapidEye and Astrium as well as
international institutions such as the French AFD, FAO, World Bank and WWF participated in
the event. A series of lectures gave an overview of available data and methods for
satellite-based monitoring systems. Working groups discussed accuracy, availability,
usability, cost, etc. and shared their experiences and best practices.

Global Forest Resources Assessment, Global Remote Sensing
SurveyThe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its
member countries and partners will conduct a global remote sensing survey of forests. This is
part of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (FRA 2010).
Brochure. (293 kB)

USGS has a record of partnerships with developing countries studying land use, resource
management, and climate related issues. The international science team at the USGS' Earth
Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS) has cooperative projects with developing
countries, using satellite based data to monitor the changes to land cover features.
Additionally, the North American Node of UNEP GRID, located at the USGS EROS Center, is in the
forefront of applying information technology tools such as remote sensing, Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) and web mapping to address the relationships between the environment
and human populations. Utilizing the expert knowledge of staff and visiting scientists, the
information created with these tools provide policy-makers a scientific basis for making
decisions.

USGS is also releasing satellite data at no cost. By the end of 2008 the entire archive
of data collected from the Landsat series, as far back as 1972 and current daily new
acquisitions, will be available over the Internet. This release will make land
observation data available to a global science community for monitoring land surface changes
over a multi-decade period.

NASA’s Land-cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) program within its Earth Science
Enterprise seeks to further the scientific understanding of the consequences of land-cover
and land-use change for continued provision of ecological goods and services, the carbon and
water cycles and the management of natural resources. It uses NASA’s remote
sensing technology to monitor global land cover change and improve understanding of human
interaction with the environment, and thus provide a scientific foundation for
sustainability, vulnerability and resilience of land systems and their use.

NASA LCLUC is also involved in a joint initiative with the US Geological Survey (USGS),
called the “Global Land Survey” (GLS). Moderate resolution (c. 30m) data
are useful for monitoring forest change, but the cost of using such data has been
prohibitively high for some resources managers and scientists working in tropical forest
countries. GLS will make freely available a global time-series of moderate resolution
satellite data, preprocessed to be directly comparable between dates (orthorectified) for
studying forest and land cover change. Currently NASA and USGS are generating a data
set for c. 2005, which will complement previous global data sets for 1980, 1990, and
2000. The plan for the 2010 data set is to develop this into an international
initiative in the framework of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), by including data from
various international satellites of similar resolution. Partnerships are currently
being sought for this international collaboration.

NASA LCLUC also supports several large regional science campaigns and programs, including the
Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, the Central African Regional Program
for the Environment, the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative, and the
Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study. LCLUC is also a contributor to the
international Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) program, a
project of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS).